Etsy Cooperative Print Advertising – Subsidized!

Print advertising can be extremely expensive and not always the best idea for small t-shirt companies or businesses. But this might change with Etsy’s announcement of cooperative national print advertising.

Print advertising in a magazine can help you reach specific audiences because they have highly defined readerships. Magazines also aren’t disposed of as fast as some other print media such as newspapers. BUT, the biggest con is that it is expensive and you really need to know what you are doing if you don’t have a very big budget. Print advertising will give the best results if your potential customer is exposed to the ad or brand at least seven times if not more. Advertising in magazines also takes a lot of planning. Magazines may only be printed once a month or every few months and the ad deadlines might be months in advance. If you don’t have a tested ad you may be just wasting your money. For example a one page ad for one run in Lucky magazine costs $92,420. If you wanted a full page ad in Time it would cost you $255,840. There are cheaper magazines and you don’t have to purchase a full page but in general you are looking at about $4000-5000 for a very small square.

So what would make it more reasonable for a small business to test the waters in print advertising? Cooperative national print advertising can be a great option. There is one more option that is even better, SUBSIDIZED cooperative national print advertising. Etsy is working on a plan to take out print ads in various magazines that have audiences that will be interested in buying handmade products. Here is an example of what an ad might look like:

Each participant gets to purchase a small square with an image of one item, the price, and shop name. Each page layout is limited to one spot per seller per advertisement and sold on a first come first serve basics.

Etsy has set up a poll on their blog to find out which magazines people are interested in advertising in. The examples of magazines and the cost for individuals to advertise as part of the cooperative advertising group include: Venus Zine: Full page, 30 spots, $25 each; Craft Magazine: 2-page spread, 36 Spots, $70 each; Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion: Full page, 30 Spots, $75 each; Bust Magazine: Full page, 30 Spots, $100 each; Readymade Magazine: Full page, 30 Spots, $450 each.

If you are an Etsy shopkeeper it seems well worth the cost to test out print advertising if you haven’t done so already. Read more about it on the Etsy Blog. If you are not an Etsy shopkeeper it might be a great idea to consider other complimentary t-shirt companies who might be a great fit for you to create your own cooperative advertising.